‘DIPP-recognised 88 out of 8,765 start-ups get tax benefits’

The government has extended tax benefits to just 88 start-ups out of 8,765 that have been recognised by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) since January 2016, a top official on Thursday said.
In January 2016, prime minister Narendra Modi unveiled a slew of incentives to boost start-up businesses, offering them a tax holiday, inspector raj-free regime and capital gains tax exemption as part of the start-up action plan.
DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that a total of 8,765 start-ups have been recognised since January 2016 and out of that “88 start-ups have been certified for claiming tax exemptions by the inter-ministerial board”.
The recognised entrepreneurs are from different sectors including IT services (15 per cent), healthcare and life sciences (9 per cent), education (7 per cent) and agriculture (4 per cent).
He said that of all directors of start-ups, 35 per cent are women.
Talking about start-up ranking exercise, Abhishek said that the ranking is likely to be announced in June.
These rankings would be on the basis of initiatives taken to develop start-up ecosystem. The ranking framework covers seven areas of intervention and 38 action points including policy support, incubation centres, seed funding, angel and venture funding and easier regulations.
“All the states are taking series of steps to promote start-ups. The launch of the ranking framework has galvanised the states and union territories into action, thereby giving impetus to the start-up movement across the country,” he said in New Delhi.
He added that the government has spent Rs 26.08 crore on strengthening the start-up ecosystem in 2017-18.
Under the fund of funds, he said that SIDBI has committed Rs 1,136 crore to 25 venture capital funds, which in turn have invested Rs 569 crore in 120 start-ups. These entrepreneurs have generated 6,515 jobs including 1,184 for women.
The DIPP, he said, has worked with different stakeholders and departments to ease regulatory burdens and 21 such regulatory changes have been made to promote ease of doing business, raising capital and cut compliance burden.
He also informed that Rs 680 crore has been sanctioned to set up eight research parks at institutes including IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and IISC Bengaluru.
A total of Rs 1,386 crore has been sanctioned for creating infrastructure such as setting up of bio-clusters and Atal Tankering Labs to strengthen start-up ecosystem in the country.